December 2, 2014

The purpose of this post is accountability. I was looking over my “to-do” list of resolutions for 2014, and realized I had completed exactly one of them.*

There is a very good reason for this – Chris and I had an adorable little girl in May, one Samantha Brunner, and she has kept us quite busy since. Sam is a joy and delight, and I’m a better person because of her. But let me tell you, while I knew in the abstract that the baby would take a lot of time and attention, I was not prepared for the reality. “I’m taking three months of maternity leave,” I thought to myself. “That’s a TON of time. I’ll learn Spanish!” Ha, ha, ha, NO. For those three months, Chris and I were up until the very wee hours of the mornings. I was grateful to catch a nap here and there when the kid was asleep. And then it was back to work, and figuring out how to balance my job and being a mom.

What I’ve learned is that there’s no point in waiting for an arbitrary deadline like New Year’s Day to do anything. Who knows what is going to happen on that day? Sam could be sick. My dog could need to go to the vet. My car could be in the shop. Any one of a million little things could turn “START DAY” into “How about tomorrow?” If I’ve got some time and energy to devote toward a project NOW, then I need to use it NOW. Also, starting every new habit all at once is kind of intimidating.

So I’m starting the self-improvement kick now. Or, rather, I started about two weeks ago.

I’m trying to add one new habit a week to work toward these larger goals. I’m using apps HabitRPG, LoseIt, and Dollarbird to track my progress. So here’s to a self-improvement, one day and one piece and one habit at a time.

*I took some boxing lessons. It was an interesting experience, but my instructor and I didn’t really gel. I didn’t want to train to fight anyone, and he was a fighter who only knew how to train people to fight.